By Christina Myles

With enough food to feed 300 families, Paul Outreach Services Inc. hosted its quarterly Mobile Pantry on Tuesday at New Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church.

“This is the largest one we have ever done,” said executive director and founder Stephanie Paul. “We normally average about 175-200 families, so this is great.”

Paul Outreach Service Inc. was established in 2002 as a non-profit public benefit corporation to aid in several ways to disadvantaged individuals and families. Paul said the mobile pantry was established to provide food to anyone in need and offers a wide range of food including produce, drinks and bread.

“This is an awesome thing,” said Mary Flowers, who attends New Shiloh. “Many elderly people and people on disability may not have a lot of money by the 3rd week of the month and are then deciding between buying their prescriptions and buying food. So I thank God for this because it gives those people in the our community something to eat.”

Pastor of New Shiloh, the Rev. Joseph Flowers, agrees with his wife in her excitement.

“It brings tears to my eyes that were already flowing from my heart,” Flowers said. “A number of people in this community are going to bed at night hungry. These people need help and some are too proud to ask for it. And I know that this food provided may not be enough for the rest of the month, but it is enough so that these people won’t be hungry tonight, the people in this city who otherwise don’t have the money to buy their own food.”

The Montgomery Area Food Bank provided all the food that was given away. This is the third time that Paul Outreach has held the mobile pantry at New Shiloh, something Paul says she will continue to do each quarter.

“I know that this cannot happen all the time and that there are few people in the world who genuinely care about these things, which is why I am very thankful for it,” Rev. Flowers said. “My hopes are that I and New Shiloh can do whatever it takes to provide for these people when Paul Outreach cannot do so.”